[Field of the Invention]
The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for processing images, and particularly relates to a method and an apparatus for optimizing depth information.
[Description of Related Art]
With the rapid development of image processing technology, stereo vision technology has been widely used in various fields. Broadly speaking, stereo vision includes two stages. The first stage includes generating depth information by using a depth camera or a stereo camera or using relevant three-dimensional imaging algorithms. The following stage is to generate images from different perspectives based on the depth information. Therefore, accurate depth information is very important for generating stereo images that create better visual experience.
According to the current technology, a preliminary smoothing process may be applied on the depth map to improve the accuracy of the depth map. However, due to limited reference information and inadequate algorithm complexity, simply using neighboring blocks to adjust the depth information may result in more errors. Particularly, in a large non-textured region, the depth value information for reference may have an overly large difference and make it difficult to distinguish the depth values of the background region and the object region. Moreover, in the case where the background and the foreground are similar, the depth value of the object region may be affected by the depth rendering near the background, which results in generation of a depth map with poor accuracy. In other words, different depth information generation algorithms may render accuracy and calculation differently. Thus, how to generate accurate depth information under allowable calculation and complexity and improve the quality of the three-dimensional images generated based on the depth information is an issue that needs to be addressed.